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BRUSSELS: The European Union may be a step closer to approving a shared airline passenger record, to detect travellers joining or returning from war in Syria and Iraq.

A new proposal has been put to the European parliament in Brussels but the issue remains controversial with privacy advocates, worried about anti-terror measures going too far.

Europes security services are on the lookout to prevent terror attacks like at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris and the shootings at a Jewish Museum in Brussels last year both carried out by young Europeans who returned from fighting with extremists in Syria and Iraq.

One prevention tool under debate is an air passenger name record (PNR) that allows intelligence services across Europe access to personal data like methods of payment and addresses.

A data sharing accord already exists between the United States and the EU, but the EU lawmaker championing the proposal says Europe has to step up surveillance of its own, generally open borders.

"We need now to make sure we have enough information to look at patterns of behaviour, said Timothy Kirkhope, a British member of the European Parliament. That is the basis on which we can find criminals and find terrorists in order to protect our citizens. Stop things happening such as the atrocities in Paris recently."

EU governments have yet to approve a so-called PNR system but support from the European Parliament is already divided. This proposal is nothing new - lawmakers at the European Parliament rejected it back in 2013 on the grounds that increased surveillance of airline passengers breached citizen privacy rights.

"We need to deliver whatever is necessary and proportionate to get a higher level of security. But what you are proposing now, the proposal of blanket mass surveillance of citizens, is exactly the opposite of that. It's not delivering that, said Jan Albrecht, a German member of the European Parliament.

Already before the Paris attacks, it was possible to know who is on which plane. We already know it. We have the advanced passenger information. It's there, we can access it, we know who's on the plane. So with regards to known suspects, we can follow them - so why dont we focus on the suspects?"

Opposition to data gathering has been particularly acute in countries like Germany, outraged over revelations of mass surveillance by US intelligence services after 9/11 attacks.

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EU passenger record sharing proposal sparks privacy debate

The first round of the battle for the euro is over, and Germany has won. The whole European Union won, really, but the Germans set the strategy.

Technically everybody just kicked the can down the road four months by extending the existing bailout arrangements for Greece, but what was really revealed in the past week is that the Greeks cant win. Not now, not later.

The left-wing Syriza Party stormed to power in Greece last month promising to ditch the austerity that has plunge a third of the population below the poverty line and to renegotiate the countrys massive $270 billion bail-out with the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Exhausted Greek voters just wanted an end to six years of pain and privation, and Syriza offered them hope. But it has been in retreat ever since.

In the election campaign, Syriza promised 300,000 new jobs and a big boost in the monthly minimum wage (from $658 to $853). After last weeks talks with the EU and the IMF, all thats left is a promise to expand an existing program that provides temporary work for the unemployed, and an ambition to raise the minimum wage over time.

Its promise to provide free electricity and subsidized food for families without incomes remains in place, but Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras government has promised the EU and the IMF that its fight against the humanitarian crisis (will have) no negative fiscal effect. In other words, it wont spend extra money on these projects unless it makes equal cuts somewhere else.

Above all, its promise not to extend the bail-out program had to be dropped. Instead, it got a four-month bridging loan that came with effectively the same harsh restrictions on Greek government spending (although Syriza was allowed to rewrite them in its own words). And that loan will expire at the end of June, just before Greece has to redeem $7 billion in bonds.

So there will be four months of attritional warfare and then another crisis which Greece will once again lose. It will lose partly because it hasnt actually got a very good case for special treatment, and partly because the European Union doesnt really believe it will pull out of the euro common currency.

Greeces debt burden is staggering about $30,000 per capita. It can never be repaid, and some of it will eventually have to be canceled or rescheduled into the indefinite future. But not now, when other euro members like Spain, Portugal and Ireland are struggling with some success to pay down their heavy but smaller debts. If Greece got such a sweet deal, everybody else would demand debt relief too.

The cause of the debt was the same in every case: the euro was a stable, low-interest currency that banks were happy to lend in, even to relatively low-income European countries that were in the midst of clearly unsustainable, debt-fuelled booms. So all the southern European EU members (and Ireland) piled in but nobody else did it on the same scale as the Greeks.

The boom lasted for the best part of a decade after the euro currency launched in 1999. Ordinary Greeks happily bought imported German cars, French wines, Italian luxury goods and much else, while the rich and politically well connected raked off far larger sums and paid as little tax as possible. Greek governments ended up lying about the size of the countrys debts.

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Greece loses, European Union wins

BERLIN: The European Union's financial affairs chief Pierre Moscovici told German radio on Friday, just before a Bundestag vote on a bailout extension for Greece, that allowing any country to leave the euro zone would simply raise the question "who's next?".

"If a country, any country, leaves, the question will arise: who is leaving next?" the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs told Deutschlandfunk in an interview.

But he added that Greece had to meet its international commitments and ensure that any additional spending resulting from its economic policies were financed.

"The reforms the Greek government wants to launch must be financed. It is not time to talk about debts. We'll talk about that at the right time. But it's important for me to say that this is not about a reduction of debt - there's no haircut."

(Reporting by Stephen Brown; Editing by Noah Barkin)

See more here:
Moscovici says 'Grexit' would raise question - who's next?

Armenia and the European Union have maintained positive relations over the years. An ArmeniaEU Association Agreement was called off by Armenia early September 2013, though a revised agreement is still under consideration.[1]

The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) (signed in 1996 and in force since 1999) serves as the legal framework for EU-Armenia bilateral relations. Since 2004, Armenia[1] and the other South Caucasus states have been part of the European Neighbourhood Policy, encouraging closer ties between Armenia and the EU. An ENP Action Plan for Armenia was published on 2 March 2005, "highlighting areas in which bilateral cooperation could feasibly and valuably be strengthened." The plan sets "jointly defined priorities in selected areas for the next five years." In November 2005, formal consultations on the Action Plan were opened in Yerevan and as of 2008 are ongoing.[2] However, most scholars and commentators have criticized the effectiveness of the ENP in facilitating reform objectives outlined in the Action Plan, especially in relation to democracy, corruption and civil society engagement.[3] Armenia entered the EUs Eastern Partnership in 2009.[1]

Armenia and the EU began negotiating an Association Agreement, which might ultimately include a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, to replace their PCA in July 2010.[4] In November 2012, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy tefan Fle stated that the AA negotiations could be finalized by November 2013.[5] The new EU Centre in Armenia, set to become the European Union communication hub, officially opened in central Yerevan on 31 January 2013.[6] On 3 September 2013 Armenia announced their decision to join the EurAsEC Customs Union.[7][8] According to EU politicians, Armenian membership in the EurAsEC Customs Union would be incompatible with the agreements negotiated with the EU.[7][8]President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan stated at the 2 October 2013 Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe session that Armenia was ready to sign the AA during the November 2013 Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, without the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area component of the agreement that contradicts Armenia's membership in the EurAsEC Customs Union.[1][8][9] A spokesperson of EU Commissioner Fle responded a few day later by saying "No Armenia-EU document is being readied to be signed at a Vilnius summit" and Were trying to find routes for further cooperation with Armenia, based on the existing achievements.[8] This was followed by other EU officials who echoed this statement.[10] No AA was ultimately initialled at the summit.[11] In December 2013, the Polish ambassador to Armenia said that the EU and Armenia were discussing a less in-depth bilateral agreement on their relations, and did "not rule out the possibility that it may be an association agreement in a different form".[12][13] In January 2015 the EU commissioner for European neighborhood policy and enlargement Johannes Hahn stated that the EU was willing to sign a revised AA without free trade provisions.[14]

Although Armenias trade with EU states far exceeds that with EurAsEC Customs Union members Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan combined, Armenia is dependent on Russia for security.[1] Armenia's alliance with Russia is seen by Armenia as a counterbalance to Azerbaijans sharp hike in military spending (Azerbaijan bought tanks, artillery cannons and rocket launchers worth billions of US dollars from Russia in 2011, 2012 and 2013).[1][15][16] This is seen by Armenia as a threat given that the Nagorno-Karabakh War (an armed conflict that took place from 1991 to May 1994 between Armenia and Azerbaijan[17][18]) remains unresolved.[1] Russia (also) has a military presence in Armenia.[1]

A December 2006 public opinion poll in Armenia found that EU membership would be welcomed, with 64% out of a sample of 2,000 being in favour and only 11.8% being against.[19] Another poll conducted in the Armenian capital Yerevan in October 2006 suggested that "as many as 72% of city residents believe, with varying degrees of conviction, that their country's future lies with the EU rather than the Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)."[19] Still, more than two-thirds of the country's population believed that Armenia will not be ready to join the EU until at least 2015.[19] A 2007 opinion poll indicated an increase in Armenian EU interest, with 80% of the Armenian public favoring eventual membership.[20]

According to a 2012 opinion poll, 54% (26% strong support+28% rather support) of Armenians supported Armenia's membership in the EU.[21]

The 3 September 2013 decision by Armenia to join the EurAsEC Customs Union sparked a series of protests in Yerevan against the action.[1] According to Eurasia Partnership fund director Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan The [Armenian] public largely supports joining with Russia. Plus they dont like the EU, which they see as a source of perverted values, he added They love Russia, at least insofar as the monster you know is better than one you dont.[1]

There is a lot of interest in Armenia eventually joining the European Union, especially among several prominent Armenian politicians[22] and the general public in Armenia.[19] However, former President Robert Kocharyan, has said he will keep Armenia tied to Russia and the CSTO for now, remaining partners, not members of the EU and NATO.[23] It is unclear what position President Serzh Sargsyan will take on the issue.

According to Artur Baghdasarian, head of the Rule of Law party and former speaker of the Azgayin Zhoghov, Armenian membership in the European Union "should be one of the key priorities" of the country's "present and future foreign policy." Baghdasarian believes that "EU membership will open new avenues for Armenia to move to a new geopolitical milieu as well as a new economic environment." He also added that it "will enable Armenia to have access to a completely new security system."[22] EU membership is on the agenda of many political parties in Armenia including the pro-Western Heritage party.[24]

Armenia's former Minister of Foreign Affairs Vardan Oskanyan reiterated in 2005 that "Armenia is Europe. This is a fact, it's not a response to a question.".[25] Torben Holtze, head of the European Commission's representation in Armenia and Georgia and Ambassador of the European Union with residence in Tbilisi, stated recently: "As a matter of principle, Armenia is a European country and like other European states it has the right to be an EU member provided it meets necessary standards and criteria."[26] On 12 January 2002, the European Parliament noted that Armenia and Georgia may enter the EU in the future.[26]

Read the original post:
ArmeniaEuropean Union relations - Wikipedia, the free ...

The first round of the battle for the euro is over, and Germany has won. The whole European Union won, really, but the Germans set the strategy. Technically, everybody just kicked the can down the road four months by extending the existing bail-out arrangements for Greece, but what was really revealed in the past week is that the Greeks cant win. Not now, not later.

The left-wing Syriza Party stormed to power in Greece last month promising to ditch the austerity that has plunge a third of the population below the poverty line and to renegotiate the countrys massive $270 billion bail-out with the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Exhausted Greek voters just wanted an end to six years of pain and privation, and Syriza offered them hope. But it has been in retreat ever since.

In the election campaign, Syriza promised 300,000 new jobs and a big boost in the monthly minimum wage (from $658 to $853). After last weeks talks with the EU and the IMF, all thats left is a promise to expand an existing programme that provides temporary work for the unemployed, and an ambition to raise the minimum wage over time.

Its promise to provide free electricity and subsidised food for families without incomes remains in place, but Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprass government has promised the EU and the IMF that its fight against the humanitarian crisis [will have] no negative fiscal effect. In other words, it wont spend extra money on these projects unless it makes equal cuts somewhere else.

Above all, its promise not to extend the bail-out programme had to be dropped. Instead, it got a four-month bridging loan that came with effectively the same harsh restrictions on Greek government spending (although Syriza was allowed to rewrite them in its own words). And that loan will expire at the end of June, just before Greece has to redeem $7 billion in bonds.

So there will be four months of attritional warfare and then another crisiswhich Greece will once again lose. It will lose partly because it hasnt actually got a very good case for special treatment, and partly because the European Union doesnt really believe it will pull out of the euro common currency.

Greeces debt burden is staggeringabout $30,000 per capita. It can never be repaid, and some of it will eventually have to be cancelled or rescheduled into the indefinite future. But not now, when other euro members like Spain, Portugal, and Ireland are struggling with some success to pay down their heavy but smaller debts. If Greece got such a sweet deal, everybody else would demand debt relief too.

The cause of the debt was the same in every case: the euro was a stable, low-interest currency that banks were happy to lend in, even to relatively low-income European countries that were in the midst of clearly unsustainable, debt-fuelled booms. So all the southern European EU members (and Ireland) piled inbut nobody else did it on the same scale as the Greeks.

The boom lasted for the best part of a decade after the euro currency launched in 1999. Ordinary Greeks happily bought imported German cars, French wines, Italian luxury goods, and much else, while the rich and politically well connected raked off far larger sums and paid as little tax as possible. Greek governments ended up lying about the size of the countrys debts.

No less an authority than Syrizas finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, described the atmosphere of the time like this: The average Greek had convinced herself that Greece was superb. A cut above the rest....Due to our exceptional cunning, Greece was managing to combine fun, sun, xenychti [late nights] and the highest GDP growth in Europe.

Read more from the original source:
Gwynne Dyer: Greece loses, European Union wins